Musical Context of Edward Said’s Contrapuntal Reading

Abstract

The aim of article is to expand the theoretical problematic field of “music in literature” with the ideas of American literary critic, culture critic, music critic and musician Edward Said. These elaborations are part of literary criticism comparative studies and intermediality. Thus, we are discussing the method of contrapuntal reading developed by Edward Said on the basis of reception of music and referencing the creativity of famous composers and musicians. An important principle of crossing boundaries has been singled out, by which the thinker implies the ability music and literature to adapt mutually to each other, to contain and add social structures and change means of expression depending on situations and public, power and sex constellations. It is also noted that for a literary critic it is absolutely natural to provide arguments as to certain poetological aspects of a literary work resorting to regularities of musical art and, vice versa, efficiently employ literary context when discussing musical pieces. Edward Said contributed to change of the perception of opera, which in his interpretation turned into a place of social discourse. It is stressed that contrapuntal reading is characterized, first of all, by a link between an aesthetic concept and a powerful political definition of the direction “contra”, and secondly, by a combination of different forms of art and activity in a single general concept which claims to be metaphoric and methodological at the same time. Separate essays by Edward Said in which he interprets the role of counterpoint have been analyzed, in particular those referring to the creativity of G. Gould. The analysis is based on Edward Said’s essays about music published in Musical Elaborations, 1991 and Music at The Limits, 2007.